Barings LLC Has $17.47 Million Stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Key Points

• Barings LLC reduced its stake in Linde PLC by 17.8%, now holding shares valued at $17.47 million following the sale of 8,104 shares in the first quarter.
• Institutional investors own approximately 82.80% of Linde's stock, with several hedge funds increasing their positions significantly during the fourth quarter.
• Linde recently reported an earnings of $4.09 per share, exceeding analysts' estimates, and declared a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share to be paid on September 18th.

Barings LLC decreased its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 17.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 37,527 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 8,104 shares during the quarter. Barings LLC's holdings in Linde were worth $17,474,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC boosted its position in Linde by 34.9% during the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Linde by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 999 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $450,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc increased its position in Linde by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 3,207 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,493,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the period. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. raised its position in shares of Linde by 3.0% in the first quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. now owns 816 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $380,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rockingstone Advisors LLC lifted its position in Linde by 0.3% during the first quarter. Rockingstone Advisors LLC now owns 8,340 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,883,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on LIN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday. Citigroup raised Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. Argus raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group upped their target price on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 target price for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $518.30.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total transaction of $908,138.48. Following the sale, the vice president owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 8,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock traded up $7.99 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $467.40. The stock had a trading volume of 1,684,648 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,592,214. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $467.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $457.93. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The firm has a market cap of $220.01 billion, a PE ratio of 33.24, a PEG ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.92.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.85 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.67%.

Linde Company Profile

Linde plc operates as an industrial gas company in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South Pacific. It offers atmospheric gases, including oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and rare gases; and process gases, such as carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen, electronic gases, specialty gases, and acetylene.